Glaucoma

Below is a brief summary of glaucoma and our approach here at Heart of America Eye Care. We also have a new Nerve Fiber Layer Analyzer to help diagnose and treat Glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a disease of the human eye that falls into three categories
1. Congenital or infantile glaucoma
2. Angle-closure glaucoma
3. Open-angle glaucoma

In glaucoma, the basic problem has been elevated intraocular pressure which causes damage to the optic nerve. Our approach is to first do a careful examination of the eye and make the proper diagnosis so that the mechanism which is causing the elevated pressure can be ascertained.

This examination involves taking the pressure. A slit-lamp examination including gonioscopy or examination of the recess in the front of the eye where the fluid drains from the eye, examination of the back of the eye including the optic nerve head and visual field testing. There are additional procedures to document the state of health in the eye such as nerve fiber layer analysis and photography.

Treatment involves lowering the pressure to a level thought to be safe for the eye. This is done with medications usually eye drops once or twice a day, laser surgery and conventional draining surgery. Significant advances have been made in all of these modalities in the past 20 years, and our success rate in controlling the disease has continued to increase accordingly.

An exciting new area which is opening possibilities of the new therapies is the mapping of genes which relate to glaucoma. There appear to be many different genes involved, six of them identified so far. If we learn to treat some deficiency in the biochemistry of the glaucomatous eye, we may be closer to curing some patients of their disease.